Emerson's Party

We celebrated with family at Chuck E. Cheese - noisy! Emerson ate his entire cake! Ryan had a matching one all to himself.
Emerson and Grandpa

This ride didn't actually move, so Grandpa shook it around a bit for them. :-)
The Seveys - Amariah, Ian and Tim. They made the loooong drive up from Veneta to celebrate with us!
Kimmie and Hadley
Crazy Uncle Kodiak - he wore his suit to Chuck E. Cheese




Solomon and Joyce
Aunt Lynne and Dillon
Emerson even tried to eat the tablecloth...

Happy First Birthday Emerson! (and Ryan, too!)

Emerson opened his birthday presents this morning - he loves to drum, so at the top of the list were his very own size drum sticks (every time we visit Uncle Kodiak, Emerson will search through his room till he finds Kodiak's sticks, then screech at the top of his lungs when they are taken away). We also gave him a children's percussion set, which included drum, maracas, tamborine, etc. Ryan wanted to him to have a "boy" present, so he was the lucky recipient of a Rescue Helicopter (makes as much noise as the drumsticks!).

Today is also Ryan's 35th birthday and this may have been his best yet. He doesn't like to be the center of attention, so he tried to focus all the fun on Emerson. :-) Nonetheless, we didn't forget about him!

The Ryan-approved wrapping paper...

Happy 16th Birthday, Kodiak!

Lotsa snow on Kodiak's birthday
Neil, looking really funny
Josie and Emerson, doing dance revolution
Josie already knows what to order...

The in-town family took Kodiak out to lunch at Gustavs (yum!) then over to a gaming arcade after lunch. More pics to come...

Oregon Zoo Lights

Misty, Norah, Emerson and I made it to the last week of Zoo Lights - it was freezing and Emerson was grumpy - yet we still managed to have some fun!

Norah kept trying to lick the light bulbs...weird. :-)

Happy Christmas!

2007
Dear Family and Friends,

On December 30th, just sneaking in to 2006, Emerson Theodore Skogen made his entrance into our world. He has changed so much of our family dynamics! Emerson is a bundle of energy and enthusiasm. At around 8 months old he decided that crawling was for babies and he was ready to begin walking . Ever since, he has been on the run! Instead of going around obstacles, he just plows right through. Recently he has been expanding his sign language skills, in addition to the funny noises that come out of this mouth – we think we may have heard him say dog! He is a daddy’s boy and is so ecstatic when Ryan is with him. Among his many favored activities: he enjoys running around with an X-Box controller and pretending to play like daddy. In a pinch, the TV remote will do…

Norah has made many leaps this year – figuratively and literally! She loves all forms of music and dance and to her great delight she began ballet/tap classes in September. She has been entertaining the family with her moves ever since. Norah also began violin lessons this fall, enjoying the associated music games (aka daily practice). As she grows, so does her sense of adventure. She loves to read books and manages to keep us all entertained with her imaginative stories and playtime. She is wonderful about involving everyone and is especially happy to have so many of her family members nearby. We spend lots of time talking about everyone!

Some of our favorite activities this year have been visiting our local parks, the Oregon Zoo, Columbia River Gorge, story time, marching in our first Rose Festival Junior Parade, the Clark County Fair (Norah won her first blue ribbon!), lambing season in Corvallis, Sauvie Island Pumpkin Patch, our first ice skating adventure, and more. Most recently, we enjoyed a weeklong Halloween trip to Disneyland – much to the delight of the entire family.

Throughout the busy year we keep our blog updated with our adventures...
please join us there! http://skogenfamily.blogspot.com

With love,
Ryan, Heather, Norah, Emerson and Jones

Christmas Day

After all the travel and activity of the past few days, Christmas was wonderfully relaxing and fun. When Norah and Emerson woke up we headed downstairs to see what Santa brought. We then spent the day playing with everyone's fun new toys! Presents and tree, waiting for Norah and Emerson!
Emerson's stocking and presents from Santa
Norah's stocking and presents from Santa
Daddy helping Norah with her nail polish from Santa
Reading a book from Grandma Carmen!

Christmas Eve

A fun afternoon spent at my mom's home!

Norah and her cousins have been practicing a Christmas concert to present to everyone on Christmas Eve. They sang Jingle Bells, Santa Claus is Coming to Town and Away in a Manger - all very cutely!

Emerson loves Aunt Mindy!

Having a little snack

Josie the sheep
Grammie Peggy read teh Christmas story and everyone took a part. Hadley is a beautiful Mary!
Norah and Josie share the role of the star
Kimmie the Angel
The three wise guys - I mean men - Kodiak, Neil and Ryan.


Aunt Misty gave all the children cute PJs, so we changed into them before we left for home. Seeing the kids together made me really miss my brother Lee and his children, who live in Japan. This pic needs to have Clair, Justice and Skye in it as well. :-)
Santa is almost here!

And finally to sleep...

After a long day of parties, Norah insisted Gracie and her new bed sleep next to her. :-)

Christmas Party

On our way home from Corvallis we stopped at a Christmas Party at my Aunt Kaye's home. We saw family we only see once or twice a year, and it as nice to catch up. Ryan and I were laughing - we had a delicious roast Joyce made for lunch, then turkey and ham for dinner. :-) We were spoiled!


My brother Robert and his wife Mindy just found out they are expecting a baby in July, while my brother Neil and his wife Dannelle are expecting a baby in April. Aunt Kaye combined the two and gave a present to Baby Butler, c/o Neil and Mindy...who knew Neil and Robert were so open with their relationships... :)